INSIGHT: Altair Chemical drives for sustainability/performance with focus on renewables

GALLARATE, Italy (ICIS)–The global chlor-alkali market has faced significant change through recent years of economic underperformance, including fluctuations in demand, price volatility, supply chain disruptions, cost reduction measures, market consolidation, and a greater focus on efficiency and innovation.

Adapting to these changes has been vitally important for producers to navigate the continued challenging economic environment and to sustain operations.

A shift to renewable power for chlor-alkali production is gathering pace as producers seek a more environmentally friendly means of producing chlorine and caustic soda while keeping an eye on costs. Electricity is the main cost element for chlor-alkali producers and can be seen as the major feedstock for plants in which a salt solution is split electrochemically into its component elements.

In Italy, Esseco Industrial completed a merger within its industrial group at the start of this year that consolidates its chlor-alkali, caustic potash and hydrochloric acid operations giving it the prospect of capitalising on production, management, logistics and storage synergies. It has merged the activities of Hydrochem, a chlor-alkali production facility in Pieve Vergonte, in the Piemonte region, with Altair Chimica, a caustic potash (KOH) production location in Tuscany.

The Hydrochem venture now operates as part of a globally strengthened Esseco Industrial, Roberto Vagheggi, general director of Esseco Industrial and CEO of the company’s chlor-alkali division told ICIS in an interview.

Esseco Industrial produces organic and inorganic chemicals and has a turnover of some €700m. It is part of the Esseco Group, a family-run holding with over a century of history, which offers products and services for the organic and inorganic chemistry industry, specializing in sulfur derivatives and chlor-alkali.

The corporate merger represents a step in a process started some time ago within Esseco Industrial and an investment of more than €50m. The Pieve Vergonte plant was hit hard by an economic crisis that began in 2019 and has had to be re-launched onto the chlor-alkali market. It faced the significant challenge of moving to membrane production and the elimination of mercury.

Previously, in 2011 Esseco Group purchased Saline di Volterra, in Tuscany, its main Italian customer for caustic potash (KOH), the acquisition being an important milestone for the company.

The Pieve Vergonte and Saline di Volterra sites have chlorine capacities of 45,000 tonnes/year and 80,000 tonnes thousand tonnes/year respectively.

Altair Chimica was one of the first European companies to move to membrane technology and abandon mercury cell production. It signed an agreement with Italy’s Ministry of the Environment and the EU for the redevelopment and modernisation of the Saline di Voltera plant, to eliminate mercury and to reduce electricity consumption and the use of water from a nearby river.

A new caustic potash plant, the first of its type, was built from scratch at the site.

Vagheggi said that the merger with Hyrdochem has made it possible to streamline all processes for Altair Chemical from production to sales and through to post-sales thanks to new synergies and a renewed dialogue between the two plants.

“The objective is to maximize production capacity, strengthen industrial activity under a single organisation, strengthen synergies between plants by sharing both storage management and logistics planning so that processes can be made as efficient as possible sales, offering customers high quality standards,” Vagheggi said.

Esseco Industrial is environmentally sustainable, as it mainly uses renewable energy. Two proprietary hydroelectric power plants are operational in the Pieve Vergonte plant, which has allowed the company to exceed 75% use of renewable energy in internal consumption, making the site among the few that can be considered environmentally sustainable of their kind.

Esseco Industrial says that it strongly believes in the energy transition. Thanks to a mix that also includes photovoltaic and process steam, the division consumes over 50% green energy and more than 55% energy with zero CO2 emissions.

Another significant energy element is the hydrogen produced in Esseco Industrial by electrolysis (using, as mentioned, 50% renewable energy). This in turn, contributes to the decarbonisation of the thermal energy necessary for chemical reactions. Hydrogen is combined with chlorine to produce hydrochloric acid.

“Today the company is working on future projects for the production of renewable hydrogen which will complement the hydrogen already produced by the chlorine/soda and chlorine/potash plants” Vagheggi said.

Insight by Valentina Cherubin